HLG Blog: Retrogression Battle Continues
Read about HLG’s ongoing effort to work on Congress to have a Schedule A visa bill passed that ends retrogression. This month’s Blog entries include: the Senate’s chances at passing CIR, the Cantwell amendment, your advocacy responsibility, and many other entries. Are you checking it regularly?
http://hammondlawgroup.blogspot.com/

NFAP: The Point System’s Impact on Foreign Nurses and other Potential Immigrants
Foreign nurses, vital to addressing America’s nursing shortage in the midst of an aging U.S. population, would be unlikely to gain entry to the United States under the immigration point system contained in S. 1348, the Senate immigration bill. Other categories of professionals and skilled individuals are also unlikely to become immigrants under the new – and perhaps inappropriately named – “merit” visas. Internationally renowned actors, athletes, physicians in rural areas, factory managers, certain executives and possibly even Nobel Prize winners may all be left out due to fundamental flaws in the legislation.
http://www.nfap.com/pdf/0706pointsystem.pdf

Jacksonville Biz Journal: Demand for Physical, Occupational, Speech Therapists Growing
As the population grows more abundant and older, new graduates in physical and occupational therapy and speech language pathology are finding jobs more quickly.  The U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics ranks physical therapy as one of the 20 fastest growing occupations, as it expects their ranks to increase almost 40 percent from 155,000 in 2004 to 211,000 in 2014.
http://jacksonville.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/stories/2007/05/14/story10.html?f=et163&b=1179115200%5e1460003&hbx=e_vert

East Bay: Lab Techs in Short Supply
California is paying for community college programs to train a new mid-level classification of laboratory technician, but the state is so backlogged it can't process the applications for licenses allowing graduates to work.
http://eastbay.bizjournals.com/eastbay/stories/2007/05/14/story3.html?f=et163&b=1179115200%5e1461098&hbx=e_vert

USCIS Filing Fees Increase
The USCIS has announced that as of July 30th there will be a new fee structure implemented in an effort to reduce processing times by the end of fiscal year 2009. The final rule is based on the USCIS’s proposed fee structure released on February 1, 2007 and comments submitted by more than 3,900 individuals and organizations.
http://www.hammondlawfirm.com/alerts/USCIS_filing_fee_increase.htm

Visa Bulletin Dates Leap Ahead
The Department of State (DOS) has released its June Visa Bulletin. The relevant part is excerpted here:
 

If your Labor Certification was filed prior to the date listed above (or in the case of a Schedule A occupation, your I-140 was filed prior to the date listed above), your case is eligible for an immigrant visa (a.k.a. green card).
http://travel.state.gov/visa/frvi/bulletin/bulletin_3236.html

Compromised PT Exam
FSBPT has determined that they believe there has been cheating in the Philippine PT Exams (two study centers having students memorize one question each to recreate the entire exam). Therefore they have stopped issuing results for any Philippine candidate, both to the candidate and to the state board. They are conducting an inquiry, the letter has very broad language and in a telephone conversation with someone from FSBPT, it was reported to an HLG client that no one is safe (i.e. potentially, even if they are already licensed and in the United States, there could be action).
http://hammondlawgroup.blogspot.com/2007/05/compromised-pt-exam.html

FY2008 H-1B Master’s Cap Reached
US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced Friday May 4th, that it has received a sufficient number of petitions to meet the 20,000 H-1B master’s cap exemption for those individuals who have earned a master’s degree of higher from a US institution. The “final receipt date” for these cases is April 30, 2007. Any cases received on or after May 1, 2007 requesting to be counted under the US master’s cap exemption will be rejected and returned unless otherwise eligible for a separate cap exemption.
http://www.uscis.gov/files/pressrelease/H1Bfy08CapUpdate050407.pdf

DOL: No More LC Substitutions Starting July 16
The DOL is expected to publish a long-awaited regulation that will eliminate the substitution of Labor Certifications, as well as restrict the use of Labor Certifications. HLG has seen an advance copy of the rule.
http://www.hammondlawfirm.com/alerts/no_more_labor_certification_subtitutions.htm

NYC Symposium
The Symposium was a success. We had approximately 100 healthcare staffing companies, hospitals, facilities, LT care clinics, agencies, and recruiters. The event was completely sold out.
http://www.hammondlawfirm.com/hc_symposium_5_2007ver2.htm

PROCESSING TIMES CHART